Every New Beginning
by TheHipDeathGoddess
Summary: Behold, a one-shot featuring only my (human) OC's! It takes place sometime during the last chapters of my story "The Dark Half", so if you haven't read "The Dark Half", you might want to hold off on reading this.


Maenad spent most of the time after the battle sleeping. She was assured by King Gerard that she was not under arrest for returning to Hauvon after being banished indefinitely in September of that year. He was not the ruler here, though. Sir Edelhart was charged with keeping her out of trouble if she were allowed to stay. This was apparently his way of "thanking" her for informing him is son was still alive, though she saw it as little more than house arrest in a house where she was no longer welcome.  
_  
These people, always wanting to keep their women under lock and key..._ she thought as her guardian let a maidservant come into her room bearing another trencher of food. He had been sitting by the door watching her when she woke up around noon, and hadn't left.

"Don't you have better things to do than watch me eat? Like see your son?"

"I checked on him while you were asleep. He's still drugged and the healer says the best thing we can do is to let him rest. It's you the king is more concerned about," _He hides his concern behind his duties_, she mused.

"I don't need a nurse. I'm not going anywhere." She rose from the bed and stretched. She was still wearing the ill-fitting guard's unform she had stolen.

"As much as you snooped around my house, you should be the last one to complain about intrusiveness." She scowled and had the maid bring her a comb, a gown and a washbasin so that she could make herself somewhat presentable. The knight did not leave his station by the door.

"I'm going to clean up and use the chamber pot, were you planning on sitting there and watching that, too?" His face flushed and he excused himself. The clack of his cane on the flagstones stopped just outside the door. Yes, house arrest was definitely what this was, despite of what the young king had told her.

After making herself look as civilized as possible, she left the room and made her way to a courtyard. Edelhart let her pass, but she soon heard the crunch of footsteps in the snow behind her.

"What do I have to do to prove to you that I'm not dangerous anymore?"

"You're only as dangerous as you are trustworthy, and you haven't exactly earned a lot of people's trust. You told me yourself that you lied under oath."

"To help _your_ son! You're going to keep me under arrest after all I've risked for you?" She picked up her pace and made her way to a garden of dog roses, now only bare vines and red rosehips covered in frost.

He sighed with exasperation. "Regardless of how you see it, these are the King's orders."

"I should just leave now, if you're going to hide behind following orders."

"What?"

"When Johan wakes up, tell him I'm sorry to have missed him. But I'm not going to be a prisoner again." She trudged through the roses back to the keep, gathering her skirts in a futile effort to avoid the thorns.

"You don't mean that..." The knight's demeanor changed to worry as the did his best to follow her.

"I've had it with this country. If I can't start my life over here, I'll find a place where I can."

She felt a hand grasp her arm. "No, don't leave. Please."

"Give me a good reason why I should stay."

"Because I need you to stay."

"_You_ need me to stay. You, who tried to kill me and told everyone I was a demon."

"That's changed and you know it. Do you have any idea what it was like when you vanished the night I got that...news? When you didn't come back, all I could do was ask God what I had done to deserve having everyone I care about taken from me, again and again."

She stopped and looked at him. _Everyone I care about?_ He had his back turned to her.

"Even with you being...what you are, it was better than being alone in the world. You know what that's like too, I think. It's why you've stayed this long, isn't it?"

"My intentions were always good. I warned Tremaine not to tell you unless he was absolutely certain Johan was dead. I had to see if it was true."

"I know. And you did prove him wrong. I'm in your debt for doing what you did. Just please, stay around a little longer."

They walked to the keep together as snow began to fall again and festival lights appeared one by one.


End file.
